she broke your throne and she cut your hair
by smokeandshadowfeels
Summary: The embers are cold enough to touch but too hot to hold. This is their life. - - AzulaTy Lee. 200 word drabbles for the Tyzula Advent Calendar.
1. Chapter 1

_**she broke your throne and she cut your hair**_

 _ **.**_

 _ **I:**_ _Peppermint Tea_

 **.**

Ty Lee likes to feel needed.

And so, when Azula is sick and no one else likes to deal with her, Ty Lee takes on the mantle of caring for the princess.

"I brought you this. I hope it helps," Ty Lee says quietly. She enters Azula's room as if she were walking into a fox-wolf den. And once she hears the coughing, she thinks she might as well have.

She has in her hand some tea and some very hot bags of rice. Azula apparently is filled with horrid body aches and is _'dying, Ty Lee'_ and so Ty Lee figured they were worth bringing. Ty Lee thinks she might get an extra commendation for that, and they really _will_ help with Azula's pain.

"Took you long enough," Azula snarls into her pillow. She's ungrateful, yes, but Ty Lee really likes feeling needed.

Ty Lee sets the tea down and kisses Azula's sweaty neck.

And then she tries super hard not to laugh when she thinks about the fact that she intentionally infected her girlfriend via a kiss.

Really, Ty Lee likes to feel needed.

At any cost.


	2. Chapter 2

_**II:**_ _Frozen Fire_

 **.**

Azula is so beautiful.

Ty Lee can hardly even suppress it. Okay, she never suppresses it. She always tells Azula over and over and over again because why wouldn't she? Ty Lee likes to think the best in people and remind them that she does. Remind them that they're more than good enough.

And with Azula? She's never lying.

"You look good tonight," Ty Lee says warmly.

The princess wants to reply sweetly but she can't manage. She just continues trying to light a fire from frozen branches, and is coming up short.

"I know. Is the fire out?" Azula asks, poking at the embers. They're like ice. "Ty Lee, we're out wood for this. I can't believe you coerced me into camping with you."

"You said that you would spend tonight with me anywhere but in _that awful village_. I like this place. You can see the whole sky," Ty Lee says, smiling.

"You're not exactly stargazing."

"No, I'm looking at something way prettier," Ty Lee says and Azula gulps.

"It's freezing out here," Azula says.

 _You're pretty too_ , they both hear.


	3. Chapter 3

_**III:** Snow_

 **.**

Azula shimmers in the snow.

The sun pierces the clouds just to make the damp droplets on her glitter, Ty Lee is certain. She sparkles like a deity and it is stunning to watch… and Ty Lee can see that other people are watching too, and so she clings to Azula with a sense of ownership that ought to show the public that Azula belongs to her and her alone. And that she belongs to Azula and Azula alone.

The princess doesn't notice. She is used to being stared at, for negative or positive reasons alike. But Ty Lee does, and Ty Lee kisses her neck and can taste the cold snowflakes that have melted on her feverish skin.

This is perfection. Holding hands with her, walking through Republic City, navigating the unknown with this sparkling, shining, shimmering woman is perfection. Ty Lee looks at her wind kissed cheeks, stained red from the cold she hates so much, and at her chapped lips that still taste like happiness, and at her expression of disdain that is just _so_ cute and sexy.

"I love you, Sparkle Princess," Ty Lee says quietly.

"Excuse me?" Azula murmurs and Ty Lee awkwardly straightens.

"I just said I love you ummm… just princess." Ty Lee grins.

Azula pretends she didn't hear Ty Lee call her _Sparkle Princess_.


	4. Chapter 4

_**IV:**_ _The Southern Water Tribe_

 **.**

It's cold.

There isn't another way to describe the weather, the city or the kiss Azula and Ty Lee share. The South Pole is _freezing_ and neither girl is particular fond of it. Even biting and kissing each other's nearly-frostbitten lips is marginally unpleasant due to the numbness and blue tint on their skin.

"Why did you take me here?" Azula hisses.

"I didn't," Ty Lee says through her loudly chattering teeth. "Zuko did. Blame him always. For everything. He's the worst."

Azula smiles. "He is, isn't he?"

"Mhm. Yup, yup. Azula I'm dying of cold help!" Ty Lee loses any control over herself that she had maintained, and she throws her arms tightly around the Fire Princess. "Why aren't you warm enough? Has your inner fire gone out?"

"This place is too cold for any fire to burn. Or anything to live. I suddenly understand why no one cared that my grandfather annihilated this place. Who's going to miss it?" Azula doesn't let Ty Lee break free of her, even when she tries.

"I wish he did," Ty Lee says quietly. She quickly regrets it. "Not really. But maybe we can sneak back to the ship?"

Azula quite likes that idea.


	5. Chapter 5

_**V:**_ _Music Night_

 **.**

Azula arrives on Music Night.

A ghost stumbles into a warm, mundane room and everyone within reacts in horror at the thud and screech from her hand on the wall, leaving a streak of bright crimson. Ty Lee is hallucinating; she knows she is. There is no way that a week after she moved to Ba Sing Se, _this_ would happen.

She sees and feels Azula so much, in a prickling of her skin, in her empty bed at night, behind her in places Azula never would be. In every fireplace, in the ocean and the sky when they're too blue, in candles and in nail polish and in the kind of flowers Azula never bought her and never would. In her dreams. Seeing Azula _now_ had to be about as real as any of those moments.

Iroh leaps to his feet faster than Ty Lee thought he could ever move. He is at the door in time to catch her as she falls. The twang of a fallen instrument echoes as Dai stands up and goes towards the back of the shop to find something to stem the flow of blood.

Ty Lee is imagining this, isn't she? Isn't she? Azula has been gone for years. For _years_ …

"Ty Lee, please help me," Iroh says to the frozen girl.

Hesitantly, Ty Lee rises. Then she runs, she runs because she thinks this might be real.

"Is she alive? Is she alive?" Ty Lee asks. She thinks she might be talking too loud, but she is out of her mind right now.

"She is," Iroh says, picking up his niece with a startling ease. Ty Lee wonders if that means she is dreaming or not. He carries her as Ty Lee walks like a zombie behind.

Ty Lee is at Azula's bedside within minutes. Hiro, Dai and Kwan had helped throw together make-shift medical supplies, and they handed the bandages and herbs and the bottle of alcohol to Ty Lee as if she would be able to handle this.

She doesn't notice that she is softly singing to herself as she unravels Azula's clothes. Undressing her in _any_ other scenario would be amazing, but this is terrifying.

"Stop that. You can't sing," Azula breathes and Ty Lee recoils. " _Don't stop_ saving my life, stupid."

Ty Lee is speechless in the sudden silence.

Gold eyes gaze at her.

They both aren't sure if they are dreaming or not.


	6. Chapter 6

_**VI:**_ _Bleak_

 **.**

Azula and Ty Lee lie tangled in silk sheets. The rain pounds on the roof and windows outside of their bedroom and Ty Lee fades into the sound. It is almost as soothing as Azula's breathing.

"I love the sound of rain," Ty Lee whispers, she makes circles with her thumb on Azula's soft hand.

The princess says nothing for a moment before commenting coldly, "You love everything, and so that means nothing."

"Well, that's a grim viewpoint," Ty Lee says, pouting her lips. Azula feels no urge to kiss them, for some reason. She is not sure why.

"It's the correct one, grim or not."

Ty Lee bites her lower lip; she doesn't know why she feels like she is going to cry. "So when I tell you I love you, it doesn't mean anything?"

"Something like that," Azula purrs callously.

"But I _do_. I love you way more than the sound of rain. I really only love it when I'm lying here with you listening it with you and…"

" _Stop_ ," Azula says, rolling her eyes. "You express your feelings just fine. You express your feelings _too much_ , actually. Which is why I say that they are meaningless. If Mai told you she loved you, it would mean much more than the other way around."

"Yeah, but…" Ty Lee now thinks she might cry. This is dismal.

Azula does kiss her on her pouted lips now. "I know that you love me. I would be a pathetic excuse for a mind-reader if I didn't know that."

Thunder crashes, lightning flashes.

Ty Lee really loves her.

 **.**

 _ **AN:**_ _Thank you all for the kind support. I had a lot of requests for a continuation/more of the last drabble and I think I'm going to do that after this Advent Calendar is over. Thank you for the suggestions. It makes me really happy._


	7. Chapter 7

_**VII: Snowman**_

 **.**

"It's hideous," says Azula as she gazes at the snowman.

She is on Kyoshi Island, which is also hideous. It snowed last night, which she is not happy about. And Ty Lee has been trying to rope her into _playing in the snow_.

"I think it's really wonderful," Ty Lee argues, gazing at her masterpiece of a half-melted blob.

Azula cocks an eyebrow and says remorselessly, "It's so lopsided. It's literally just a hunk of snow you smashed together and drew eyes on."

"That's what a snowman is. What do you even know about snowmen? You don't even leave the Fire Nation!"

"I'm on your island now. This is… certainly not the Fire Nation."

Ty Lee rolls her eyes. "I love my snowman, and you will love my snowman, and we will adopt the snowman as our child."

"Because it's so pathetically small?" Azula dodges a ball of snow hurtling at her. "Be careful with that stuff. I will feed you to that sea monster if you get me cold and damp."

Ty Lee sighs and examines the snowman. She pokes at it. Crosses her arms.

"What are you supposed to do with snowmen?"

"I thought you were a _snowman expert_."

"I didn't say that," Ty Lee grumbles. She then perks up. "I made this _beautiful_ snowman but it's boring. It's really boring and it's gonna melt by tomorrow."

Azula shrugs and snootily says, "It's your problem. You insisted on making it."

Ty Lee glares but then she grins. Azula is not sure if she trusts that expression.

"Do you… want to see what happens if you hit a snowman with lightning."

"Now _that_ is the best suggestion you've made all day." Azula smirks, her eyes flashing excitedly.

Snowmen just explode when you hit them with lightning.

And shower you with a burst of snow, which Azula is none too pleased about.


	8. Chapter 8

_**VIII:**_ _Gifts from Iroh_

 **.**

An exhausted shopkeeper working overtime is bewildered by the two royals surrounded with a _caravan_ of their own purchases, now standing and staring at her shelves.

"What should I get her?" Ty Lee exasperatedly begs as she hops from foot to foot. It is the thirteenth store they have gone to today, and it probably won't be the last.

"Hmm." Iroh looks at his own bags, and then at Ty Lee's, and then at the shelves. "Did we really not get her anything?"

Ty Lee frowns and wrings her hands. "Nope. You were really right about this shopping trip being exactly what I needed! Except for the gift for Azula's birthday. That was… what I actually needed." She then smiles and hopes that can relieve some of the newfound tension in the shop.

Iroh scratches his head. "Are you sure you didn't buy her anything already?"

"Are _you_ sure? You bought more than me," Ty Lee retorts and then feels a pang of regret. "I'm really sorry. I just feel sooooo bad I forgot! Azula never forgets anything that I forget to do for her! And also she remembers my birthday, even if she sucks at presents. Oh! Can you imagine if we could combine our powers and always remember times for the presents _and_ give _amazing_ presents? We would be the _greatest married couple in the history of time_! I mean, we already are but… I'm rambling. You got anything?"

Iroh sighs. "I'm giving her advice."

"Hm. I would get her that too if I was good at it. I can give her the gift of friendship and love!"

"She would hate that."

"She hates your advice more."

That descends into an outlandish bickering the likes of which the shopkeeper has never seen before.

Poor princess. No wonder she's crazy with a wife and uncle like that.


	9. Chapter 9

_**IX:**_ _Bedtime Stories_

Azula is awake and panicking. She feels like she is dying, breaking into little pieces, stones pressing down on her chest and becoming heavier and heavier. There is no way on Earth that she can survive tonight, much less sleep like a baby saber-toothed-moose-lion like her wife.

The princess gets up and paces before splashing water in her face and finding that it makes her gasp worse, like a fish out of water. Jump starting her heart was not the right choice.

She looks up in the mirror, her knuckles white from clutching the sink basin, and Ty Lee is there, rubbing one eye.

"Are you okay?"

"Do I look okay?" Azula screams and Ty Lee stares at her feet. "I am _far from okay_!"

"I can help you. Let me talk to you. Let me talk you down."

"You talk too much," Azula hisses but Ty Lee does not leave her alone like she wanted. She does not know if she can get out of Ty Lee trying to _help_ her.

"Come to bed."

"I'll die."

"I'll protect you, okay?"

" _Fine_ , but I don't need protecting."

"I think you'd be surprised. Let me tell you a story. I wanna tell you a story about the day I knew I was in love with you forever and always," Ty Lee says, extending one hand.

Azula moves to brush it aside, but she takes it instead.

Hearing her voice slows Azula's heart.

Ty Lee soothes her like nothing else can, even if she hates to admit that she needs someone else.

"Don't leave me."

"I never will."

 **end**


End file.
